Josh and Jess are two of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. I don’t say that lightly. They are both kind, generous, loving, witty, smart, AND talented. And, can I just say, they are both incredibly attractive as well. Just look at those photos!

I don’t have too much to say about the entire day other than that it was a beautiful day, a beautiful couple, and I’m grateful that I could be a part of it.

It never hurts to have a really fun wedding party to photograph as well.

Let me just say, THESE ARE AMAZING! 

I’m not kidding. The flavor and texture mix just works. I can’t describe it. I highly recommend you do what I did and follow this recipe to heaven… in your mouth.

I did a few things different. First, no onion or cilantro. Second, I only used cumin and chipotle chili powder. And I used white corn tortillas.

The day I limped around will probably go down in history as my favorite day that I ever spent by myself.

I woke early, caught a cab to City Lights Books, and limped my way around. I didn’t take too many pictures, but I did spend a lot of money on books. (Note: When you’re traveling, it’s pretty dumb to buy a bunch of books. You have to pack them, you big idiot.)

Now, as a reformed English major and poetry writer, going to City Lights is a pretty big deal. All of those beat poets I read in college, who I was forced to emulate by my poetry teacher (don’t get me wrong, it’s a good writing exercise!), were all here at some point or another. Published here. Read here. I was in the very spot where so many men, for better or worse, shaped poetry.

And then I got over myself and started browsing the books. They have an amazing selection!

After spending too much time and dropping too much money on books I didn’t need, I decided to ask the clerk where the best coffee could be found. City Lights is in North Beach, which I’ve been told has amazing food, but I hadn’t heard anything about the coffee. He advised me that I could get a pretty good soy latte at The Station, gave me directions, and sent me on my merry way.

He was right.

This was the best latte I think I’ve ever had.

Charles Bukowski is not my favorite writer. He’s probably not even in the top ten. He did, however, write one of my favorite poems. Hopped up on the San Francisco vibe, all the amazing coffee, and an excellent salad, I decided on a whim to get a tattoo. I decided on a line from my favorite Bukowski poem because I was in a place. I made an appointment at a well reviewed place, with excellent portfolios, and made a quick appointment.

After another awesome soy latte at Rouge et Blanc, which is a fun coffee and wine bar, I settled in for my tattoo.

I suppose the place to do something irresponsible is on vacation. So…. woo, vacation!

San Francisco, however, completely won my heart. I went for a work conference and decided, months ago, to stay a few extra days. My dad was flying to San Fran for a conference just as mine was ending. I used my extra days to do my fair share of touristy things, as well as a lot of lounging about and eating as much as possible.

I’m going to use my next few posts to talk about the different things I loved in San Francisco, and what exactly I loved about the city.

First, the major tourist attraction of San Francisco: Alcatraz!

If you plan on making a trip to The Rock, get your tickets in advance. You can order them from a couple of different websites, but everything I read and everyone I talked to advised getting your tickets well in advance. Apparently, at times, the tickets will sell out weeks ahead of time. After taking the tour, I can see why.

When you take the ferry to the island, you have a beautiful view of the city, the Golden Gate Bridge, and, of course, The Rock. There are also some fun birds that trail along behind the ferry, waiting for people to throw food overboard, I guess.

Alcatraz is also a walking audio tour. They say to set aside two and a half hours to take in the whole island. After being there for an hour and fifteeen minutes, I can see why. After all that time walking around, listening to the audio tour, we weren’t even through the main prison building. My only complaint was that, as it is an audio tour, I felt like I was constantly bumping into people. But once you get the hang of looking to make sure you aren’t going to run into anyone, it’s quite a lot of fun. It’s actually the best audio tour I’ve ever been on. It’s also just an incredibly beautiful island, which sounds weird since it was a prison. But… the gardens, the views. It was all pretty amazing.

It’s also a LOT of walking. Up hill, down hill, all over. Just a lot of hoofin’. There is a little golf cart trolley that takes people to the top of the hill to the main prison, and it seems very handicap accessible, if you’re worried about that.

Anyway… on to the pictures! Which were taken both with my phone and my camera.

Can you spot the Golden Gate in the picture above? That’s the view from the Alcatraz recreation yard…

And this picture is San Francisco as seen from the Island, by the Warden’s Quarters and office.

Next post: City Lights, coffee, and tattoos!

But, that’s okay. I suppose. We spent a few years eating a lot of pasta, or burgers, or pizza, or wings. Or pancakes. I used to eat a lot of pancakes. As a result, I am now pretty close to sick of all of those foods. Especially pizza. There are only so many ways a vegetarian can eat a pizza, especially one who isn’t particularly fond of tomato sauces. Even if I am mostly sick of pizza, it’s still a comfortable compromise for us. If nothing else, pizza places always have beer. And I still love beer.

One night, in OKC, we were both starving after seeing Dracula at the OKCMOA. Using my phone to find the closest restaurant that was still open turned up one really appealing option that we’d never been too — The Wedge Deep Deuce/Bricktown. I don’t know if it’s how hungry we were, or how tired, but we both kind of lost it over how good the pizza was. We got different toppings on each side, but compromised on a roasted garlic olive oil sauce. I’ve been on a mission to recreate my half of that pizza ever since — roasted garlic olive oil, spinach, crimini mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese.

Alright, I lied. I tried to make it twice. And I haven’t found any worthwhile crimini mushrooms at the local grocery stores, so it isn’t exact, but I think I finally found a good, homemade alternative.

And I pretty much decided that buying pizza is a waste of money. This is so, so cheap to make. The most expensive ingredient is the $10 bottle of olive oil I already had.

And since pizza is always better with beer… And it’s been way, way too hot the last couple of days, I paired it with a really light beer that also happens to be quite tasty.

I would include a recipe, but all you do is throw some stuff on top of a crust and then put it in the oven. This is very much not vegan, but could easily be made so. I’m just partial to spinach, mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese. The only special thing I did is sauté some minced garlic in 3 tbsp of olive oil and then spread it, as evenly as possible, on the pizza crust before the toppings. It’s my alternative to tomato sauce because… Ew.

Oh, for your reference, I used the Pillsbury thin pizza crust and just followed the package instructions.

Usually that means I leave it alone so long that I have no choice but to delete the entry and forget I even took the photos.

However, I feel like there’s a lesson I learned that I don’t want to keep all to myself. As I am self-taught, I’m constantly learning from other photographers, from blogs, from trial and error… And I want to share my blunders.

It will seem so silly to most of you, but we’ll call it….

The Lesson of the $9 Studio: 

Don’t Be A Lazy Photographer… Well, Not Too Lazy, Anyway

Awhile ago, I asked my friends on Facebook to name some of their favorite drinks. I had fun shooting the Gin Rickey’s last year, so I wanted to give drink shots another chance.

Since it’s not my livelihood, I can be a really lazy photographer. I’m even worse when I’m photographing food… Usually by the time I get around to setting up my tripod, moving the coffee table over by the window, plating whatever it is I’ve made, etc, I’m hungry. I should probably start snacking while I’m cooking, but I got out of that habit awhile ago and I’d like to keep it that way.

Since I can be Lazy, with that capital L there, I’m often disappointed with the end result. There is no better proof than when I attempted to photograph my favorite, albeit simple, rum drinks. For a frame of reference, I took 24 photos. I will show you three.

First up: The photos I hated. 

Ugh. What the hell was I thinking? I didn’t even attempt to disguise my apartment complex. I tried multiple angles, but these were the two best photos with the least amount of glare. These, friends, are terrible photos.

I only liked one. One. photo from the entire thing. And you can’t even tell what I was going for…

what was I trying to show you? It looks like I’m showcasing that pastry that, by the way, I didn’t make. That’s not what I wanted, even though it looks appetizing enough. I went out of my way to provide extra props for this photo set up. I wanted something to accompany the drinks. I mean, it was a tasty pastry, with raisins and caramel and all kinds of goodness, but… C’mon, Steph. You can’t use that. It doesn’t serve a purpose.

So what did I do?

After a few days of feeling disheartened, I went on a mission to take some better photos.

Since this particular set up didn’t require any cooking, even if my recipes are beyond simple, it could be easily redone. And I didn’t lose any money on this. You can bet your hat I drank those drinks, and Dillon helped eat the pastry. Besides, even if I was just able to get one new photo that showcased the drink, then I would have succeeded.

And then… BLAM!

Now, obviously, there are problems with this photo as well. First, the Kraken bottle needs to be moved, or the glass needs to be moved, my backdrop isn’t flush with the table, etc. But… I did what I set out to do. I got a photo, a decent one, of the drink I wanted to show case (it’s Kraken and Ginger Ale, in case you aren’t paying attention, dummy.)

So, how did I accomplish this? Did I paint my wall yellow? Did I buy a table?

None of the above!

Here’s a more paired down photo to explore.

• That yellow background? It’s a poster from the Dollar Tree, where some things are even less than a dollar… in this case, $0.60 a piece for poster sheets. I bought three (yellow, black, and red).
• The poster board is taped to a piece of white foam board ($1.00 a piece). I bought 4.
• The table is another piece of foam board with wood printed vinyl shelf liner ($1.00 a piece). I bought two rolls of the shelf liner, one light, one dark.
• The red fabric is a folded up place mat ($1.00).
• There’s also a poster board to the side set up as a reflector.
• Are you keeping track? I spent $8.80, pretax. 
• I used the rest of the $20 I had set aside for this task to buy a few other items for future shoots — a plate, a bowl, a few more place mats and napkins.

It looks like this when you’re done setting up:

If you’re limited on space, don’t worry. So am I. I used the top of my dog’s kennel to set all this up. And to store it? It’s all in the closet, neatly packed away for next time.

If you’re interested in getting amping up the food photography on your blog, I strongly recommend you spend this money up front. If you’re interested in getting more advanced than that, I’d like to point you over to Vanessa‘s recent blog posts about the creative and technical aspects of what she does. You should pop over there anyway. It’s an amazing blog with some really inspirational photos.

When I cook at home, I eat a lot of noodles (which we’ve covered in my most recent posts), or I eat black beans mixed with corn and something else. I really, really needed to get out of that rut. I decided on a whim to try cooking up the last of the veggies in my fridge — one yellow pepper, one orange pepper, and some baby spinach. I love this mix. I think it works for some reason, but I might be totally crazy. It’s a sweet, kind of spicy, savory, weird mix.

I’m not really sure why I decided to make this into a taco, but I think it had something to do with “having some tortillas and no idea what to do with them.”

Alright… I have to add a disclaimer to this post.

I made Dillon try these, and he said they were “alright, but I hate vegan cheese.” So I don’t know if anyone other than me will like this recipe. It’s a strange combination of flavors: sweet bell peppers, hearty spinach, and corn tortillas. I LOVE this combination. Seriously. I ate it for three meals in a row. 

If you try it, and like it or hate it, let me know! I want to know I’m not crazy. Maybe I’ll force some unwitting house guest to try them… Hmmm…

I’m not really doing a good job of talking this recipe up, am I?

Alright… here goes!

What you need:

• 1 small or medium sized orange bell pepper
• 1 small or medium sized yellow bell pepper
• two good handfuls of baby spinach
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder
• 3 or 4 corn tortillas of your choice. I use Mission’s corn tortillas since they’re supposedly vegan.
• Diaya cheese. I used Mozzarella shreds. You can use real cheese, or no cheese, or even feta if you want. Oh man, I bet feta would be good………. Anyway

What you do:

• Wash and chop your peppers. I sliced mine as to keep a solid texture. Wash your spinach while you’re at it.
• In a medium sized skillet, heat up the oil. When the oil is heated, add the peppers.
• Sautee the peppers in the oil for about 3 or 5 minutes, until they get soft… ish. I like mine a little more firm so that the peppers aren’t slimy. I stand there and stir constantly so that the peppers don’t burn.
• Add the spinach and sautée until the spinach is bright and cooked down.
• Add the cumin and chipotle powder and mix well with the peppers and spinach.
• Remove the pepper and spinach mix from heat. I put mine in a bowl on the side.
• Heat your tortillas in your desired fashion… I use the recently empty pan and heat the tortillas on both sides.
• Fill your tortillas, add desired cheese, consume!
• And then email me and let me know if you liked it.

So that’s my new favorite meal.

Oh and hey look! You can see me in the spoon!

And I love them. I get really disappointed when the market has sold out of them, which is often. To top it all off, the only ingredients listed on the package are “wheat flour, cool water, salt, spinach, chlorophyll.” Pretty sure that makes these vegan to boot!

These noodles are cooked basically like soba, so they can be made in a similar fashion. They have a softer flavor than soba though, so the sauce or oil pairings can be hard to match at first.

I prefer to pair the spinach noodles with something similar to what I put on soba, but minus the chili oil and add a bunch of Sriracha. I also add a side of coconut oil, red pepper seasoned fried tofu to make it all kinds of tasty and spicy. (Sidenote: I’m all about the oils lately, aren’t I?)

So basically, here’s what you’ll do… even though it’s the same as the last post with minor changes…

What you’ll need:

• 8 oz Spinach noodles
• 2 tsp Sesame Oil
• 2 tsp Soy sauce of your choosing
• Srircaha

What you’ll do:

1. Heat the soba according to package instructions. Make sure to wash the noodles in cold water, that way they won’t stick together.
2. Toss noodles with sesame oil and soy sauce.
3. Apply Sriracha to your liking.
4. Enjoy!

If I ever get sick of this combination, I’ll let you know. But for right now omg love it can’t stop eating it.

I don’t actually have a studio. I have tiny corners of the apartment where I clear some space and take some photos. It’s usually over by a window in the office. Sadly, somewhere along the way, my adorable pup Silva became terrified of the shutter sound on my camera. This is really tragic because she’s the cuuuutest dog, and I can’t ever get high quality photos of her anymore. Silva runs and hides in another room when I’m taking pictures of anything. She’s also not particularly interested in my food.

Boo, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to mind anything… Strangers, loud noises, being yelled at… He just kind of keeps doing what he’s doing. He’s also very inquisitive and very food motivated. Whenever he smells food, and notices me moving furniture around, he gets in the middle of everything. This is much less cute than when this happens to photographers with cats, such as VK Rees’ cute kitty, or Joy the Baker’s cat. In fact, it’s really annoying since Boo is already 30 pounds, and about 3 times the size of a normal cat… I guess we’ll just end up with at least one photo like this every time I try to photograph food for this here blog…

Enjoy!

When it starts to really heat up, that’s when I’ll switch to salads and cold sandwiches, but for now… I can cook up some noodles!

Today it was soba noodles. It’s always soba noodles. Soba forever!

What you’ll need:

• 8 oz Soba noodles
• 1 or 2 tsp Sesame Oil
• 2 tsp Soy sauce of your choosing
• Chili oil (optional). If using chili oil, only use 1 tsp sesame oil, and 1 tsp chili oil.
• Toasted sesame seeds. I just did a generous sprinkling. You can measure it out if you want.

What you’ll do:

1. Heat the soba according to package instructions. Make sure to wash the noodles in cold water, that way they won’t stick together.
2. Toss noodles with sesame oil, soy sauce, and, if used, chili oil.
3. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.
4. Enjoy!

And here’s a picture of my new food photography helper. He mostly just sits there and stares at me, waiting for me to drop something… But at least he’s committed.

We adopted another dog.

Everyone, meet Boo Radley.

According to D, Boo is so named because he’s really quiet until you approach him, and then he’s very sweet and playful.

As we have come to find out, that isn’t the case. But the name still hung on.

We adopted Boo last Tuesday (2/5) from the local Animal Welfare Society. At 3AM on Friday, after a long night of vomiting, we found out that Boo has parvo. For those of you not familiar, parvo is a potentially deadly virus that unvaccinated puppies can pick up. It’s spread fecal-orally, so there’s a million ways a puppy can get it. It’s important to always always always keep your dog up to date on their vaccines. If left untreated, parvo kills something like 90% of infected dogs. Treatment is what I consider “really bad flu care,” so hospitalization, fluids, antibiotics to ward off other infections, etc. And in the case of our boy Boo, a plasma transfusion. We’re pretty sure he already had the parvo when he came to live with us. Luckily Silva is 5, and current on all of her vaccines, so her risk of contracting it were very low.

After an expensive vet visit, Boo came back home on Sunday. We’ve had some good days, and some very, very bad days, but for the most part we’re all getting along pretty well. I think Silva has even adjusted to his presence… As long as he stays away from her, that is. He’s a pretty hyper pup, so his name doesn’t really apply anymore. I’ve taken to calling him Monster.

So, that’s our boy. He’s pretty new, but I think he’s adjusting. We’ve only had two (!!) house breaking accidents since he got home from the vet. He isn’t taking to his crate very well, but we’re working on that.

Next up: Training. Lots and lots of training.